Painting the Florida Room

August 10, 2013

As you well know, I’ve begun giving the house we live in a “face lift.” It was built in 2000 and while I’m sure it’s had updates and repairs through the years, I find the white on white on white a bit disturbing. We’ve got a white exterior with a white interior with white tiles in the kitchen and entryway. I’ve not sure who picked out all the white, but what I am sure of is that a few hundred bucks and a bit of effort will cure the issue.

I started the paint project yesterday. Because everything needs to get done, I’ve decided that taking things in small chunks is probably the best route. It’s quite easy for me to get overwhelmed with the thought of painting the entire interior and exterior of this house. There are all those walls and all that trim. And this is coming from a guy who really doesn’t like to paint in the first place. But, things need to get done and I’m the guy to do them. Laura is the taper. She tapes things off and I paint around them.

The first room I figured we’d do is the Florida room. For those of you who aren’t aware of what a Florida room is, it’s what used to be a concrete porch in the back of a Florida house. Generally, the people who initially purchased the house, liked the back porch. Then, they most likely sold the house to someone who didn’t like the back porch. Either that, or the new people wanted more square footage in the house. They called a company and had that company put walls up to make the porch a room. That’s what we’ve got. It’s a room with a sliding glass door that goes back into the main house and a regular door that heads outside. Throw in a few windows and call it a Florida room. I think retired folk dig this stuff.

Anyway, the room we’ve got was outfitted with good ol’ panelling. If you’re from my home town, you know exactly what panelling is. The houses are covered with the stuff. While I haven’t seen it lately, I think they still use it for RVs and Florida rooms. And just like the old days, it still has that beautiful wood grain. I’m being facetious here because you know as well as I, that wood grain never looked good.

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We had to deal with two considerations while preparing to paint this room. First, we wanted a really light color, because I’m not that great at being exact. Since everything else is already white, I figured that if we could just paint the room some sort of an “off” white to take the edge off, but maintain some sort of a contrast with the trim, we’d be in good shape. That way, if I make a few mistakes along the way, they wouldn’t be that noticeable. Secondly, I had to contend with the stucco siding of the original house. It’s quite textured and I’ve never exactly painted anything so aggressive. I really didn’t know what to expect.

Okay, so you may be asking why we want to paint things in the first place. If they are white, why not leave them white? Well, let me tell you that while someone before us did make an effort to fill all those little tack hole in the walls, they failed to sand the filling and when they painted, they used a different shade of white than what already existed on the walls. We’ve now got whiter than white spots all over the place. Also, there are smudges and dirty areas here and there. On the outside of the house, white is just damn ugly. That, and there are stains toward the bottom of the house that were caused by water splatter. I also suspect the wrong type of paint was used. I’ll fix all that.

Since I’ve been shopping at Lowe’s lately, I decided to head over there for the paint. I’ve made some terrible mistakes in the past while choosing colors, so I thought I’d better go with only a gallon (instead of the big 5 gallon bucket) of the color I chose. And it’s a good thing I did, because the color is too light. It’s good for the Florida room, but for the rest of the house, I want just a tad bit darker, and not so yellow. We already picked a new color, so when I head over there tonight, it’ll be smooth sailing.

I’ve never used “Valspar” paint before and was nervous about it being thin and runny. I’ve had that happen with a few brands and it’s not fun to deal with. But I have to tell you, Valspar was pretty good. The walls only needed two coats and I think the coverage was complete. I did manage to use the entire gallon for this one small room, but I’m sure that was because of all that texture I mentioned above. And painting panelling can be challenging.

I took a few before and after pictures of the room. Please forgive the mess – the Florida room is only meant to house the cat litter boxes and a shelf. I had to shuffle bins a totes around to get access to the walls.

Before Pictures

After Pictures

There isn’t a huge difference, but I think the paint really cleaned things up. The stucco was all dirty and the panelling made me sad. Now, we have a nice clean Florida room. On to the rest of the house!

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About Jay Gaulard

Hi, my name is Jay Gaulard and I'm a full time blogger living in Maine. I've been writing since 2006 and have covered just about every topic on earth, one way or another. This is a blog about the goings ons of my life. There's a wide variety of categories to browse, so take your time and enjoy. If you ever have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them at the bottom of the post pages. I respond very quickly.